Field of the Invention
This invention relates to speakers, and more particularly to speakers adapted for use in the hotels, restaurants, home or living areas.
Description of the Related Art
Music, audio and movie sound tracks recorded are rapidly becoming available to the average consumer for playback in the home and other environments. Commercial enterprises such as restaurants and hotel suits also provide music to their customers. Typically, the speakers in such systems are physically connected and receive amplified analog audio signals coming from a central amplifier source. In some applications multichannel playback is desired where the goal is to create a surround sound experience using directional sound cues. In order to achieve this effect, different speakers may receive different sound signals. Playback of such pre-recorded multichannel sound is fully realized with pre-determined placement of speakers so that a listener at a pre-determined listener position experiences the full effect of such multichannel encoding. Moreover, it is desired that the sound coming out of speakers be directed towards the predetermined listening position so that directional sound cues are clearly identifiable. A speaker is generally designed to emit sound from its front. Therefore, achieving proper directional sound cues depends on the proper orientation of the speakers such that sound is directed towards the pre-determined listening position. The entire system setup therefore necessitates running independent wires from the central amplifier to each of the speakers and careful placement of each of these speakers to create a pleasing surround sound experience.
For example, proper playback of a movie encoded in Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 sound in a typical living room (See FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART)) would require placement of front, center and right speakers (102, 104, 106) in pre-determined positions relative to the listener's position 108, as well as surround left and surround right speakers (1 10, 1 12) to the left and right of the listener's position, respectively (each referred to herein as “channels” or “ideal channels”).
For channels driven by a central sound source, such as a receiver amplifier 1 14, professional and aesthetic placement of speakers may require entry into the interior of wall spaces or ceilings to run speaker cable from the central amplifier source to each respective speaker. The speakers need to be carefully positioned keeping into account two critical aspects - the angle at which the speaker is placed relative to the listening position and the direction in which the speaker is oriented. Placement of a subwoofer for such encoding, although not as critical, would still require running speaker cable and/or power cabling. In some consumer premises that do not offer access to an adjacent attic or basement or that do not have hollow-walled construction, such wire runs may difficult and expensive. For some consumers, such installation may be impossible to accomplish aesthetically. For speakers which may receive the pre-amplified audio signal wirelessly, most speakers still require suitable access to power, typically using between 120V and 230V AC, again resulting in similar challenges.
In a different the scenario such as restaurant where only a single track of sound is played through all the speakers, running wires is cumbersome. Moreover, since each speaker receives the same amplified analog audio signal, the volume of each speaker cannot be controlled independently thereby giving the same loudness level to all the customers.
A need still exists, therefore, for an audio system that provides for easy installation of suitable signaling and power to allow proper audio broadcast of popular encoding formats without the necessity of inconvenient or expensive demolition and repair of a consumer's premises and allows for independent control of each speaker.